Nightmares Have Nothing on Alien Invaders
by MapacheLuna
Summary: Hajime's not really good at comforting people with his words, especially not after a nightmare -Oikawa used to call him "heartless" actually,- but he's willing to give it his best shot for Akaashi. Now if only he could manage to stay awake long enough to say it.


SO, how're the next chapters of "We're not Heroes" and "You Either Die a Hero" coming along, Luna? And on that note, what about that Halloween fic that's almost an entire month late?

_"

SO, this was inspired by one of the OTP Prompts over on Tumblr, about one person trying to comfort the other after a nightmare only to fall asleep on them, and as the the story of my life, it got longer than I originally intended.

(*Whispers* All of you are enablers, over there on Tumblr. I love you all.)

 **Disclaimer:** *Sigh*

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Hajime jerked awake with a start, glancing around the dark room with a confused snort. Nothing looked out of place at first glance; he was still on a futon in the middle of Kuroo and Bokuto's tiny living room in their tiny Tokyo apartment, the disproportionately big flatscreen television looming to his right, the couch (that was really too small for even him, let alone two six foot tall men) to his left. The doors to both Bokuto and Kuroo's rooms were still closed too, and after a beat of silence, Hajime figured that he could safely assume that he hadn't been woken up by the sounds of Oikawa and Kuroo having sex -again- either.

Hajime rolled over onto his stomach, splaying his arms out and immediately frowning when his right hand only met rumpled covers. He clenched the sheets under his fist, noting that they were still warm; he hadn't gone to bed alone, had he? No, he was sure that he remembered burying his face in someone's really soft, fragrant, dark hair before falling asleep...

He was still blinking groggily at the empty space underneath his arm when the sound of shuffling feet reached his ears. Hajime glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Akaashi coming to a halt at the entrance of the living room.

"Ah, Iwaizumi-san," Akaashi shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"Nah," Hajime grunted, rolling over again and pushing himself up onto his elbows, "It's alright, I woke up on my own." He could see the doubt flashing in Akaashi's eyes so he barreled on, "You been up long?"

"No," Akaashi scratched one of his arms absently as he shot a glance back towards the kitchen. "Just got up for a drink." He shot Hajime a small smile. "Kuroo-san tends to keep the thermostat on too high during the night; he says it's like sleeping in the sun."

Akaashi spoke lightly as he walked back towards him, his steps sure and steady, but Hajime had been friends with the King of Misdirection himself for far too long to be distracted so easily. He could see the tightness around Akaashi's eyes and the constant bobbing of his Adam's apple as he climbed back into the futon, and the truth couldn't be clearer.

"You had a bad dream, didn't you?" Akaashi immediately froze, his fingers curling into the covers underneath his knees.

"What makes you say that?"

Hajime shrugged, pushing himself up the rest of the way, groaning as he settled against the couch. "You just have that look, I guess." He stifled a yawn with the back of his wrist. "Want to talk about it?"

Akaashi shot him an amused look, another small smile turning up the corner of his mouth. "You look like you're about to fall asleep again, Iwaizumi-san."

Hajime grunted, "How many times have I told you to drop the 'san?'" He reached over and wrapped his hand around Akaashi's wrist. "Now, come here."

Hajime knew that he and Akaashi were in a weird limbo-type situation when it came to where they stood with each other, in no small part due to Oikawa's relentless need to remind him after every encounter-

 _("You need to talk, Iwa-chan! Communication is key to every strong and stable relationship! How else is Akaashi-kun going to know your intentions?"_

 _"What the hell are you going on about now?"_

 _"Like me and Tetsu-chan, for example. I make sure that we make time to talk about our likes and dislikes-"_

 _"I don't think yelling at him to 'go faster' or 'right there, don't stop' counts as a healthy relationship chat."_

 _"You don't need to be so crude, Iwa-chan!")_

-but as Akaashi gave into to his tugging and crawled onto his lap, he couldn't help but reflect that he was pretty content with the ways things were now. They went out when they had the chance -which was more and more often these days since Oikawa insisted on dragging him along whenever he visited Kuroo only to promptly abandon him once they got there,- they were in constant contact when they _didn't_ see each other, and Hajime was starting to find that little things in his day-to-day reminded him of Akaashi, things like the birds that sung outside during his first class and the way the setting sun cast shadows across the gym at the end of practice.

He liked Akaashi, and he knew Akaashi liked him back; he could see it in the way he'd curl his fingers around his with that small pleased smile of his, in the way his cheeks would flush just the barest hint of pink when Hajime kissed him, in the way that he had volunteered to sleep with him out in the living room, despite Bokuto's loud protests about "best friend bed sharing." And right then as Akaashi slumped against him with a soft sigh, Hajime couldn't help but think that Oikawa really was overthinking things again; things between him and Akaashi were simple, and he liked it that way.

"So," He swallowed down another yawn, watching the way that Akaashi's head bobbed up and down on his shoulder with his movements. "What happened?"

Akaashi sighed again, the air huffing warmly over Hajime's neck. "It's a little ridiculous, to be honest."

"Can't be so ridiculous if it got you out of bed," Hajime offered, tightening the grip he had around his waist reassuringly. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay," Akaashi ran a thankful hand down his arm before continuing. "It's just that it was about Oikawa-san and Kuroo-san, and everyone else."

"Was it the one about Oikawa getting pregnant and having twins that looked exactly like Kuroo and Bokuto?" Hajime asked dryly. "Because I've had that one and it's fucking terrifying."

There was an audible weight to the silence that followed that revelation.

"No," Akaashi said finally. "That sounds...frankly, a little worrying, Iwaizumi-san."

"Enough with the 'san,'" Hajime muttered. "And you'd be disturbed too if the only thing they said was 'Iwa-chan! Iwa-chan!' the entire time." He could feel Akaashi shaking against him, little chuckles escaping him in snorts. "Hey, that one kept me up for an entire night, okay? Don't laugh!"

"I'm sorry," He didn't sound sorry at all, "It does sound bad, I'm sorry you had to live through that." Hajime felt the mood dip slightly as Akaashi's smile shrunk against his neck. "Mine was, a fantasy, I suppose?" His words lilted up at the end, like he wasn't even entirely sure. "I was stuck in a room with a few others, I don't remember everyone, but I know you were there and Kenma-kun was there, and so was Lev-kun," He paused, before continuing in a much more subdued tone, "He was covered in blood, and crying. I think Suga-san was there as well, because I remember him holding Lev-kun."

"Holy shit," Hajime couldn't help but mutter, but Akaashi was finally on a roll.

"And I think I was psychic, because I could see what was going on outside even though I knew I was still me, still in that room," Akaashi continued, "And I could see Bokuto-san and Sawamura-san fighting, against what I'm not sure, but they had swords." He rubbed his forehead against Hajime's jaw softly. "You had one later too."

Hajime was curious but he knew Akaashi wasn't done yet. "And then what happened?"

"Oikawa-san and Kuroo-san were there too," Akaashi murmured. "It was a really violent fight; there was blood and limbs that looked like they were rotting falling left and right," Gross visual, "But it was a trap. They were concentrating on Oikawa-san so that Kuroo-san would get distracted, and then," He moved one of his hands to brush just under Hajime's ribs before settling it on his arm again. "I watched him bleed out. He stopped breathing."

Holy shit.

"But it didn't end there."

 _Holy shit._

"I had time to see Oikawa-san breakdown, screaming and crying, and Bokuto-san started _howling_ , and then suddenly I was back in the room again, and Kenma-kun," Akaashi swallowed hard. "I don't think I can even describe how dead his eyes looked. He stopped moving or reacting. And Lev-kun was inconsolable; he looked like a different person." He stopped with a shudder, curling his fingers around Hajime's shirtsleeve with a shaky sigh.

Hajime waited for a beat and when it didn't look like Akaashi planned on continuing, he pulled him closer with a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"It was just a dream," Akaashi whispered, but he sounded so sad that Hajime felt his heart breaking.

"Screw dream, that was a fucking nightmare," Hajime muttered, watching helplessly as Akaashi just hummed a note of agreement and went back to his silence. He had never been good at consoling people after tricky situations like these, and that trait never shined brighter than when faced with someone else's nightmares. He had spent way too many nights of his childhood listening to Oikawa wail that he was "heartless" after he'd bluntly told him that his nightmares couldn't hurt him, and could he maybe just go back to sleep now, cause his kicking wasn't letting him sleep.

Thankfully, he'd figured out a system for dealing with that pretty quickly- wait a minute.

"Hey," His voice was still rough with sleep, but he bravely trudged on. "Did I ever tell you that Oikawa used to believe that aliens lived in his closet?"

He could tell that Akaashi was confused about the apparent change of topic, but bless him, he just went along with it. "No?"

"Yeah, he did," Hajime nodded resolutely. "Brain-sucking alien invaders, to be exact. He saw a movie he wasn't supposed to when we were five, don't ask," He rushed to explain, "But the point is, that every time he woke up in the middle of the night, he was convinced that the aliens had snuck into his closet and were waiting for him to go back to sleep to suck out his brains. He was a mess, sobbing and snot running all over the place," He could feel Akaashi's brow furrowing in disgust, "And he wouldn't even calm down after his parents checked the closet; he said they were using their cloaking devices to stay hidden."

"Oikawa-san sounds like he was a very creative child."

"Pain in the ass, more like it," Hajime snorted. "Made calming him down impossible most nights. So I started beating them up for him."

"You did what?" Akaashi actually started lifting his head up, but Hajime just pushed him gently back onto his shoulder.

"Hey, just relax, okay?" He pushed some of his wayward hair behind his ear, smiling when Akaashi huffed but stayed put. "It's pretty embarrassing now, but I was a silly kid with an even sillier best friend, and he needed me. So I would wrap toilet paper around my hands like I used to see the boxers on TV do, and I'd storm into the closet with a war cry, just swinging my fists around and knocking stuff down, until I was sure that if there had been anything in there, invisible or not, I'd managed to hit it at least twice." He had to pause to yawn, a jaw-cracking one that he had no hope of stopping this time. "I'd do it every time, and Oikawa would finally be able to go back to sleep. I was doing it into Junior High, but don't tell him I told you that; I'll never hear the end of it." Plus, Oikawa had his own arsenal of mortifying stories about him that he wouldn't hesitate in sharing out of a sense of petty vengeance.

"I promise," Akaashi definitely sounded better now, and even the cadence of his breathing had slowed down, creating a soothing push-pull sensation against his own chest.

"Good," Hajime leaned further back against the couch. "So the thing is, I used to beat up monsters when I was a kid, so I can definitely take on nightmares now, no problem."

"Is that so?" Were he more awake, Hajime was sure that he'd be able to identify the tone he was using, but sleep was a siren's call now that Akaashi seemed to have calmed down.

"Mhm." He would just rest his eyes for a minute or two. "Nightmares have nothing on invisible, brain-sucking alien invaders, you know?" He was actually really comfortable, a soft surface against his back and a leggy beauty on his lap. "Don't worry, Keiji, I'll...protect…"

Keiji waited patiently after Iwaizumi had trailed off, but after a few seconds he couldn't help but prompt him gently. "Iwaizumi-san?" A snort was his only answer.

He finally managed to lift his head and sure enough, Iwaizumi had fallen asleep, head tilted back against the couch cushions with his mouth open, snores escaping him with every breathe.

Keiji opened his mouth, fully intending to wake him back up -that position couldn't be good for his neck,- but he stopped himself just in time. Iwaizumi had spent so much time trying to comfort him, and he _had_ had a long day as it was -Bokuto and Kuroo were relentless when together, and adding Oikawa to the mix was just a recipe for exhaustion,- he deserved all the rest he could get.

Still, he couldn't just leave him like that either. He wiggled off his lap cautiously, but Iwaizumi's arms fell away from his waist easily enough, and once he managed to slide off, pulling him down onto the futon was surprisingly simple. Iwaizumi continued right on snoring as he flopped a little too unceremoniously onto his back, only pausing to mumble something inaudible when Keiji pressed a kiss onto his cheek.

"My hero," He murmured, hiding his smile against Iwaizumi's cheek when he huffed something that sounded vaguely affirming and even a little proud, if Keiji did say so himself.

He curled up against Iwaizumi's chest, finding peace in matching his breathing to the beat of the strong heart underneath his ear, and with it, the first tendrils of sleep.

He was sure that he'd be able to sleep easy now; after all, he had his very own knight, didn't he?

* * *

Well that nightmare's premise sounded familiar, didn't it? (What, spoilers for "We're Not Heroes"? Don't be silly~)


End file.
